Humor – Black Covid-19

Chitlins may be a COVID-19 early detection tool

Chitterlings is their government name, but Black folks know them as chitlins. Anyone who has experienced the smell of chitlins being cleaned or cooked know how badly they stink.
Chitterlings are cow or pig intestines that were common peasant food in medieval England and made their way to America as a slave’s delicacy. I am proud to say that my generation may be the first in the slave lineage that has stopped eating chitlins.
Many of our parents and grandparents included chitlins with the holiday meals. I hated when my mom would stink up the house cleaning and cooking chitlins. Just the smell alone made me never want to eat that stuff. I watched the older folks devour chitlins at Thanksgiving and Christmas meals in disbelief.

I know y’all hating me right about now

I’m ashamed to admit while at my favorite aunt’s house with all my cousins sitting around the large table, she slipped chitlins on our dinner plates. I wasn’t tipped off because they were prepared when I wasn’t there and the smell goes away after they’re cooked. My dumb ass thought they were noodles. I ate them and actually liked them. All of a sudden it hit me – ‘These is some damn chitlins. I been got!’
I never ate them again and never will, but I hear there’s a Chinese restaurant in Wilmington that serves a huge helping of chitlins for take-out for those of you jonesing to get your slave taste buds reacclimated.
The reason I mention chitlins is a report by Axios that says the loss of smell could be an early detection sign of COVID-19. They quote an AP article which says…

There’s evidence from South Korea, China and Italy for loss or impairment of smell in infected people.
In South Korea, some 30% of people who tested positive for the virus have cited loss of smell as their major complaint in otherwise mild cases.
That might serve as a useful screening tool — a way to spot infected people without other symptoms like fever, coughing and shortness of breath.

If you’ve got a tub of chitlins in the icebox, this might be the time to pop the lid, get a little vinegar, clean a small portion, and see if someone in the house doesn’t complain. That would be the one in need of a COVID-19 test.

Coronavirus has killed birds flying through Chester

Mother nature is amazing. It’s as if birds have a calendar in their nests to know to start chirping in the morning on the first day of Spring.
I woke up the last couple mornings to the welcoming melodies of whatever the birds are trying to communicate with their pleasing cacophony of sounds.
They haven’t mentioned this on the news, but there is one bird that normally flies through Chester every 30-seconds, every day of the year, who has been killed by the coronavirus. A few of the birds have survived and come through the city occasionally, but it’s eerie not having the normal flock coming through.
As cruel as it might sound, I’m really glad they’re gone. I know it’s only temporary, but I welcome their absence right about now.
Unlike these sweet sounding birds of spring hanging out on telephone wires and porch railings, the coronavirus victims have a loud and disturbingly obnoxious sound. If you’re not familiar with which bird I’m talking about, let me explain it with a bad joke…

Why do Blacks and Puerto Ricans talk so loud?

Because they all live near airports.

With the airline industry virtually shut down to commercial traffic, cities like Chester that are near a major airport and directly in the flight path of planes taking off and landing, we are getting a welcome reprieve from the noise.
For most of us, we probably don’t notice the difference because we’re so used to the brief interruptions throughout our day. For guys like me who wake up early, I can almost tell you the exact time of day without looking at a clock as the first early morning flight approaches Philadelphia International Airport and flies over Chester at about 5:15 am every morning. Every 30-seconds after that until about 11:00 pm, those birds just keep on coming.
The coronavirus doesn’t bring a lot of benefits, but for the moment, I’m enjoying the silence.